As leaders at Centers for Disease Control quit after director’s firing, Kennedy stokes controversy with pet theories

In a week of chaos at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has continued to make questionable medical and health claims – and has been slammed for them by experts and lawmakers alike.

In recent days, Kennedy has been facing increasing calls for his resignation following the Trump administration’s firing of the CDC director, Susan Monarez, which in turn prompted four other top officials to quit the agency. The chaos across US health agencies also comes as Kennedy released a slew of controversial and contradictory rules surrounding Covid-19 vaccines.

On top of all this turmoil, Kennedy has also met with significant backlash for a handful of outlandish remarks and revelations, which have only fueled the controversy surrounding his leadership at the health department.

  • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Serious deep studies need to be done on any of the claims he makes that don’t have adequate study. I know the autism thing already has a bunch, along with retractions.

    But I suspect other claims have been deemed not easy enough to study, or worth more study. And some will require long timelines for the study to make sense.

    I shouldn’t be hearing reporting on RFK’s BS that can’t easily share overwhelming evidence to refute his claims.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Well, if a dumbass like Bobby Brainworms just makes claims of something and doesn’t have any evidence for those claims, then the burden of proof is on him.

      It doesn’t fall on others to disprove the claims of idiots who have no relevant education, no relevant skills and no expertise.

      Edit: I mean, don’t get me wrong - I understand what you are going for here, but the denialists need to know that this isn’t how science works - falling for their gambits should not be a thing and everyone should point out what they are doing, at all times.

      • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        That’s fair. I just wish it was all more concrete.

        And I think overall, we lack health and nutrition studies that are unambiguously not backed by food companies. And the history of nonsense studies and lack of studies around nutrition makes for such a messy discussion even among people who are normal not crazy people, but who just debate things as simple as fats vs carbs. I dunno.